Non-volatile data storage devices, such as universal serial bus (USB) flash memory devices or removable storage cards, have allowed for increased portability of data and software applications. Data storage devices may communicate with a host device via one or more protocols that define a rate of data communication between the data storage device and the host device. Such protocols may evolve over time so that later versions or revisions of a particular protocol have a higher data communication rate than earlier versions or revisions of the particular protocol. Frequently, later versions of a protocol are designed to be backward compatible with earlier, “legacy” versions of the protocol. Although backwards compatibility enables greater connectivity and may extend a usefulness of older devices that support older versions of the protocol, a physical similarity between older and newer connectors may cause difficulty for users in distinguishing between connectors supporting a legacy version of the protocol with a reduced data communication rate and connectors supporting a more recent version of the protocol with an enhanced data communication rate.